Perhaps a regional thing then - a friend of mine grew up in Russia (including the requisite time in the army) during the cold war era. He begs to differ.

Ah well, I meant the evil socialists say this! I got a letter from a union I was member of briefly as a kid (First job, and said union was VERY Socialist and had during the cold-war era imbibed a lot of Soviet propaganda.

The letter started with "Dear Comrade".. The next day I resigned from that particular union - Not because I don't like socialists but because they were totally clueless and we certainly weren't comrades in ANY sense of the word.